Technical Field
Embodiments of the invention generally rely on power systems for mobile devices, and more particularly to voltage regulation of a DC/DC converter suited for solar and thermal power management.
Related Art
The approaches described in this section could be pursued, but are not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated herein, the approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
As a classical DC/DC converter conventionally operates by regulating the output voltage, it does not allow keeping the power source such as a solar cell or a thermoelectric generator at the maximum power biasing point. This drastically decreases the power transmitted to the load such as a battery or an electronic function, and the overall power efficiency of the system comprised of the power source and the DC/DC converter.
Further, in case of charging a battery, not all the battery voltage range is covered.
Still further, addition of another power source managed by, for instance, an SMPS (Switch Mode Power Supply) with output voltage regulation to the current power management tree will generate conflicts with the existing power management circuits used to charge the battery or supply electronic functions. Stated otherwise, there will be conflict with another SMPS connected to the same output in the case of supplying an electronic function.
EP1905222 discloses a DC/DC voltage converter intended to connect a fuel cell to a filter capable of being connected to a battery of a mobile phone in a charge operation. The converter includes means for maintaining, during the charge operation, the voltage across the fuel cell at a given working voltage. However, a filter has to be connected between the DC/DC voltage converter and the battery for allowing the charge operation.